Cheryl Pierson

      Thnx Cheryl for joining us today. I'm so glad to have you in the hotseat.

      Cheryl, why do you write romance? What romance subgenres do you write in?

Hi Rhonda, and thanks for having me today!  I write short stories and novels—all romance, but some are historical westerns and some are contemporary.

       Do you notice any certain themes/trademarks you use in your books?

Hmmm. Well, some would probably say I always have a wounded hero. LOL Probably 9 out of 10 of my stories DO actually have a hero who gets wounded or has been wounded previously and is recovering from it during the story.  I don’t know why that is, but I’ve been teased about “Cheryl’s wounded heroes.” And I always say, being a hero in a Cheryl Pierson story is like wearing a red shirt in a STAR TREK landing party.  You may not be completely expendable, but you ARE going to be hurt somehow before it’s all over. LOL

      We alll have something that gets our inspirational motives flowing, what are yours?

I wouldn’t say there’s ever one particular thing.  Usually my stories are just created from one particular scene that might come to me and it might be something in the middle of the story or near the end, not necessarily in the beginning.  I write the story around that scene.

      How do your stories come to life? Is it real or fantasy?

Because I write pretty gritty, realistic stories in any of the sub-genres I take on, my tales are usually a combination.  Life in the old west was tough.  So although I’m using a whole lot of imagination, and some fantasy (as in my book TIME PLAINS DRIFTER), a lot of what I write is based on realism.

       Do you have any dirty little secrets you don’t mind sharing with us? We   

       promise we won’t tell a soul.

  No, I really don’t have any dirty little secrets—wish I did.  LOL  My life is pretty boring, pretty routine.  My husband just retired last month and I’m getting used to having him here with me during the days.

I know this may be a silly question to ask a writer, what do you do in your downtime to relax?

I don’t have a whole lot of downtime.  I used to love to scrapbook, but haven’t done that now in probably over a year. Life is hectic! LOL I love to read and sometimes I will watch tv in the evenings when I’m just a vegetable.

      If you could meet one person from the past or present who would it be?

Oh, gosh.  That is a very interesting question.  There have been so many great people during the history of time, I’m not sure which one I’d pick! I would say I would pick one of my ancestors, but that might prove very disappointing, and maybe not at all what I would have expected. LOL So I would probably have to say I would love to have met Abraham Lincoln. I’ve always really admired him and what he had to go through not only as president during some very difficult times, but also in his personal life.

      Any promotional secrets?

Rhonda, I’m probably the world’s worst at promotion.  I’m not really good at it because I would rather be writing, and I also am a terrible technophobe. Learning different applications and procedures and such is just painful for me.

      I'm bad at promo, too. I just wanna write. Where is your fave place to visit?

I love the beach—any and all beaches.  But I also love any place that is historical.  So I guess there is really no “favorite” for me—as long as it’s got some interesting history, I’m there.  Living here in Oklahoma, one of my favorite places to go visit is Fort Sill Army Base near Lawton. Geronimo is buried there, and so is Quanah Parker and many other Indian chiefs.  Every time I go there I really get a deep feeling of peace and I love to just walk through the cemeteries and read the gravestones.  It really fires my imagination.

      The beach is always motivational for me. Are you a fairy tale or a realist sorta person?

Both.  My husband calls me “Pollyanna”—he says HE is the realist in our family. LOL I write with a lot of realism both in my dialogue and plot. My stories always have an HEA, but my characters sometimes have a rough time getting to it.  I’ve never written a story where the H/h initially hated one another then overcame it and became head over heels in love.  I have read some books like that that I absolutely LOVED, but I’ve just never written one that had that in the premise. My H/h usually are facing a common enemy somehow, whether it’s society or a gang of outlaws/criminals, or their own self doubts.

      Any suggestions for unpublished authors?

Don’t give up, and don’t stop learning.  Keep on writing and submitting, even though rejection is tough to take.  There are so many people in the world that there is room out there for a lot of different kinds of books/stories, and it may take a while to find your ‘niche’ and a good place to be.  Don’t expect to become a millionaire, either.  If it happens, that is wonderful, but if you are writing for the sole purpose of making money and you don’t love what you’re doing, it will never work for you. Love what you are writing, and keep at it.

If you had another career, what was it? If you didn’t write, what would you do           

      instead?

WOW.  I wish I knew! LOL Probably a teacher of some kind, though not in the public school system as it is today.  I’d never make it there with all the politics that go on. I have always loved teaching, and did a lot of tutoring here in one of the local school systems for their Indian Education Dept. LOVED IT.

      If you could have one wish, what would it be?

That every child would have a safe and happy home and never go to bed hungry or afraid.

      In one word only, describe yourself.

      Are you an animal person? If so, which animal?

YES.  I love animals!  I always had cats growing up because my parents wouldn’t let me have a dog. But now that I’m an adult, I find I’m probably more of a dog person, though I still love cats.  My daughter has a huge dog, half Anatolian Shepherd, half Great Pyrenees (hope I’m spelling these right) that I call my “granddog.”

     What is your most embarrassing moment?

Probably I’d have to say that would be when I gave a talk at a local library to a literary club and realized afterward that my pants had been unzipped for probably the entire hour I’d been up there talking.

My most recent novel is SWEET DANGER with The Wild Rose Press.  My most recent short stories are with Victory Tales Press and the most recent one of those was in A VALENTINE ANTHOLOGY.  The title of the story is, A HEART FOR A HEART.

Sweet Danger and all my Wild Rose Press publications can be found here:

http://thewildrosepress.com/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=534&zenid=a3ceb045e2ca54302a6c330676403d4e

A Heart for A Heart in A VALENTINE COLLECTION as well as all my other short stories with Victory Tales Press can be found here:

http://victorytalespress.yolasite.com/online-store.php

If you go to my website, www.cherylpierson.com there is information on all my other publications through Chicken Soup and Adams Media as well.

I have another short story, THE LAST OF HER KIND, available as of March 1 in the Victory Tales Press anthology A MYSTERY SUSPENSE COLLECTION.

http://victorytalespress.yolasite.com/online-store.php

Look for more wonderful anthologies to come and check out the backlist at Victory Tales Press as well.

Thanks so much for having me here at your blog, Rhonda, and for putting me in the spotlight!